Understanding Literary Concepts: Genres, Functions, and Forms

The Concept of Literature

Literature is an art form that aims to create beauty through language. A literary work expands upon language, having variable characteristics and not always a direct practical purpose.

Literary Genres

Literary genres classify works based on common features. Factors determining genre include:

• Order Sought by the Author: May be aesthetic or a mix of practical and aesthetic purposes.
• Predominant Form of Elocution: Narration, description, dialogue, etc.
• Tradition: The generic conventions of the era in which the work was created.
• Attitudes of the Author: Can be objective or subjective.
• Society: Societal preferences for certain genres over time.

Classifications

Lyric, epic-narrative, dramatic, and didactic essay.

Evolution of the Term

It is now accepted that a single work can combine multiple literary genres and subgenres.

Literary Subgenres (Lyric)

• Letrilla: Burlesque, loving, or religious poem, similar in form to a carol.
• Ode: Poem expressing the poet's emotions upon contemplating something.
• Hymn: Composition where the poet addresses a superior and extols their virtues.
• Satire: Usually brief composition censuring individual or collective vice.
• Eclogue: Pastoral poem idealizing nature, often with a love theme.
• Elegy: Poem expressing the author's feelings about the death of a loved one.
• Song: Song of praise, similar to an ode, often about love.
• Epistle: Composition explaining personal concerns, feelings, and reflections in a letter format.
• Sonnet: Poem of fourteen lines (two quartets and two tercets), usually in iambic pentameter with a specific rhyme scheme.
• Lyrical Romance: Poem derived from the dismemberment of Songs of Gesta, with an indefinite number of octosyllabic lines, assonance rhyme in pairs, and free odd lines.

Subgenres (Epic)

• Epic: Long poem recounting the deeds of a hero, often representing a nation.
• Chanson de Geste: Medieval epic poem, usually anonymous, recited by minstrels to convey news and moral lessons.
• Apologue: Short story, sometimes allegorical, ending with a lesson or moral.
• Fable: Short narrative in verse or prose, with archetypal characters (often animals), ending with a moral.

Subgenres (Dramatic)

• Tragedy: Features high-class characters using elevated language. Characters are swayed by passions or fate, leading to a tragic outcome that evokes fear and pity.
• Comedy: Features lower-class characters and has a happy ending. Often includes entanglements and comic situations intended to make the audience laugh. Comedies imitate everyday reality, encouraging audience identification.
• Drama: A genre blending tragedy and comedy, where misfortune doesn't reach tragic levels and incorporates comedic elements.

Language Functions

• Representational: To convey information.
• Expressive or Emotional: To express emotions or a state of mind.
• Appellative or Conative: To influence the receiver's behavior.
• Phatic: To initiate, maintain, continue, or terminate communication.
• Metalinguistic: To talk about language itself.
• Poetic: To draw attention to the form of the message.